The government aims to complete work on the country’s first film museum by 2013, which marks the centenary of the Indian film industry, Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting Ambika Soni said Friday.
“The National Museum of Indian Cinema, a first-of-its-kind, that will showcase the evolution of Indian cinema, is being built in Mumbai and I hope it will be ready to be inaugurated in the centenary year of 2013,” said Soni, while addressing the gathering at the Vigyan Bhawan before President Pratibha Patil gave away the 58th National Film Awards.
India’s first feature film “Raja Harishchandra“, a silent film, released in 1913.
Soni said that the musuem will be a window to India’s ever-expanding soft power, cinema.
“The centenary celebrations would provide the country an excellent opportunity to exhibit India’s soft power on a global scale and reinforce the idea of Cinemas of India alongwith the Incredible India campaign,” she said.
She also said the government has moved forward in setting up the National Film Heritage Mission with an outlay of Rs.660 crore.
“The greatest benefit of the mission would be to enable the preservation of the invaluable filmic heritage of the country which is an integral part of our socio-cultural heritage. Three thousand films will be acquired and digitised and 3,000 films will be restored and transferred to inter-negatives under the scheme and will be available at affordable rates as DVDs to public for viewing,” Soni said
